


Exercises in Team-Building

by glowingGalaxies



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Identity Reveal, anyway this is my first miraculous ladybug fanfic so??, but I do have some ideas so it's not a COMPLETE mystery, i'll do my best, idk where this is going really, lemme know if any of the characters seem off to you, might add more character tags later, might add more tags later?, or anything, the dialogue at the beginning popped into my head
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-26
Updated: 2017-03-27
Packaged: 2018-10-10 22:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10449039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glowingGalaxies/pseuds/glowingGalaxies
Summary: “As I said, I already have someone in mind for this Miraculous: your friend Alya.”Both of their attentions snapped up to him as he said her name. “A-Alya?? You… want us to make my best- uh, the owner of the ladyblog the new addition to our team?” Ladybug stuttered out, clearly rethinking their choice. Master Fu only smiled.“If you think it’d make it any easier, you could tell her your identities beforehand."





	1. Team-Building Lesson One: Trusting Your Preexisting Teamate(s)

**Author's Note:**

> idk how to Title or where this is going yet so that may change

“You’re probably wondering why I asked both of you to come visit me today.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir exchanged a glance.

“You’ve both been doing an excellent job protecting the city, but there have been some… close calls as of late.”

The two heroes recalled their most recent fight, where Chat had taken a blow for Ladybug and briefly broken his arm before the Miraculous Cure fixed it, with similar grimaces. Master Fu waited a moment for their attentions to return to him before continuing.

“I hope neither of you will take this the wrong way, but I think it may be best to expand your team to prevent more similar or worse encounters. I have someone in mind, but it’s your decision. If you think it’s best to wait, I understand.”

Ladybug spoke first. “I don’t know, Chat and I have a good balance in our team right now. Someone new could really throw us off.”

“My Lady, you’re not just trying to keep me all to yourself, are you?” Chat joked, before adopting a more serious tone. “I think we’ve developed a routine, yeah. But, Bug, don’t you think if we wait too long we’ll just be more thrown off when we finally get someone new?”

Ladybug seemed to consider. “That’s… a good point, chaton. And I suppose it’ll give the new hero more time to learn their powers before we really need them.”

“So, you’re in agreement, then? You’re ready to make an addition to your team?”

Ladybug and Chat nodded, both looking confident.

“Excellent.” Master Fu turned away from them for a moment to retrieve the Fox Miraculous, then turned back and handed the it to Ladybug. Both she and Chat stared at it while he spoke. “As I said, I already have someone in mind for this Miraculous: your friend Alya.”

Both of their attentions snapped up to him as he said her name. “A-Alya?? You… want us to make my best- uh, the owner of the ladyblog the new addition to our team?” Ladybug stuttered out, clearly rethinking their choice. Master Fu only smiled.

“If you think it’d make it any easier, you could tell her your identities beforehand. I’m sure, given how close you are to her, she’d understand. Does she really seem like the type to expose you if she cares about you?” Both heroes seemed to think he was talking solely to them. He tried not to chuckle at their obliviousness.

“R-right. Okay, we’ll uh, get the Miraculous to her as soon as possible. Thank you, Master Fu.” Chat said for the duo, seeing Ladybug having trouble thanking him herself. As they opened the door to leave, Master Fu gave one last word of advice, a knowing smile still on his face:

“If you do plan on revealing yourselves to her, it might be best to reveal yourselves to each other first.”

\---------------------------

Ladybug and Chat didn’t talk until they reached the Eiffel Tower. It wasn’t clear to either of them, though, if they were waiting because there’d be no eavesdroppers there or because they were both too nervous about what Master Fu had said to speak.

Regardless of why, they continued to be silent for a few minutes. Chat looked out at the city, while Ladybug studied the Fox Miraculous. Finally, they turned back to each other.

“Well, I… I think Master Fu has a good point, Chat. If we’re going to add… Alya to our team, we should probably know who’s already on it a little better.” She couldn’t tell what Chat’s reaction was, exactly, as well as she knew him.

Truth be told, he was unbelievably excited. He was doing his best to hold it in, which wasn’t saying much. “My Lady, I- absolutely! Right- uh,” he looked down at the city, “right now?”

Ladybug seemed to remember where they were. On top of the eiffel tower. In broad daylight. With a ridiculously powerful ancient necklace in their hands. “Oh, uh, no, probably not. Uh… how about we do it before patrol tonight? That’ll give us both time to… Prepare. Okay?”

Chat nodded, possibly too enthusiastically. Ladybug gave a nervous smile in response, and the two heroes parted ways.

\----------------------

Her mind on a thousand other things, Ladybug nearly tripped onto Marinette’s balcony, and not-so-gracefully fell down the ladder into her room before detransforming. Marinette hastily glanced around to make sure she didn’t have any unexpected guests.

“Tikki, do you really think this is a good idea?”

Tikki spoke in a reassuring voice. “Marinette, I’m sure it’ll be fine. You and Chat are a team, knowing your identities won’t change anything.”

Marinette collapsed into her chair, looking down at her drawings. “But what if it does? I mean, I’m sure Chat and I don’t know each other very well outside of our costumes. What if he thinks I’m weird, or doesn’t like me, or something? What’s he going to think when he finds out I’m best friends with the owner of the ladyblog??” Tikki laughed.

“That’s not going to be a problem for too long, though, so you don’t need to worry about that. And I’m sure he’ll love you, Marinette, who wouldn’t?”

“Yeah, maybe,” she sighed. “But what if he doesn’t? What if it ruins our partnership so far? I don’t want to start back on square one with him.”

“But you won’t be! Just because you don’t know a lot about his civilian self doesn’t mean you’ll know any less about him when you meet. You’ll know more, in fact!”

“I guess you’re right.” Marinette glanced over at her closet. “... Do you think I should change into something nicer than my normal clothes? I don’t want to make a bad impression,” She laughed, albeit nervously, but was quickly joined by Tikki.

\------------------

Meanwhile, Adrien felt like he was going to explode.

“Can you believe it, Plagg? We’ll finally know who she is! We can hang out outside of costume, and go to movies, and do normal civilian stuff together, and-”

“Woah, what’s this ‘we’ll finally know’ stuff?” Plagg interrupted. “Even if I actually cared, I already know who she is. Not everyone’s as oblivious as you two.”

Adrien glared. “It’s your magic that keeps us from recognizing each other. Of course you’re immune to it.”

“Y’know what I’m not immune to? The amazing taste of cheese.”

Adrien rolled his eyes, and pulled a piece of Camembert out of his pocket. Plagg’s eyes lit up, and he snatched it out of his hand. It occurred to Adrien that all his normal clothes had absorbed that same scent.

“Do you think I should change? She’s going to think I’m weird if I smell like cheese.”

“Kid, she’s probably the only one who’d understand why you smell like cheese. And besides, it’s not a bad smell- maybe she’s a cheese fan like myself.” Plagg smirked.

\-------------------

After a day that seemed to last forever, and an akuma attack that almost could’ve- the akuma was attempting to freeze the planet forever, never letting things change and move on- it was finally very dark outside. Patrol time.

Chat arrived early. By about ten minutes.

Ladybug was only five minutes early.

“Okay, are you ready?” She seemed to be asking herself almost as much as Chat.

“My Lady, I’ve been ready since the day we first met.” That was a lie; he had been hoping for this since their first day. He still wasn’t sure he was really ready.

“Okay, on the count of three, we both drop our transformations. 3… 2… 1.”

Their collective gasps were even louder in the silence of the night.

“Adrien??”

“Marinette??”


	2. Team-Building Lesson Two: Planning Ahead

They stood in shocked silence for a moment, but Marinette spoke first.

“How can you- how do _you_ have time to be superhero??”

Adrien laughed. She hoped that was a good thing.

“To be honest? I really don’t. But I love spending time with you, My Lady.” Marinette blushed. It was going to take some time to get used to _Adrien_ , of all people, calling her that, she was sure.

“Well, I’m… I’m glad it was you, Adrien. Th-this is… d-definitely better than someone I had never met before, at least.” She laughed nervously, the realization that she was talking to Adrien _who has been Chat all this time_ suddenly hitting her. She’s been sneaking out to save the city with _Adrien_ for over a year now. She knew _Adrien_ better than she knew nearly anyone else. Other than Alya. 

_Alya._

“So,” she started, “I guess… giving A-Alya the miraculous is going to go… very differently from how I had e-expected.” Marinette was thankful she was managing to get full sentences out in front of Adrien for once. She tried not to think about it too hard.

Adrien smiled. He had thought he’d have to be the one to give it to her, but now they could do it together. Working together outside the mask for the first time. The idea made his heart swell with happiness. Anything was easier with her.

… Even, he hoped, facing a task unimaginably more daunting than beating an akuma: telling Alya who they were.

“I guess Master Fu was right, it was a good idea to let the _chat_ out of the bag before we told Alya.” Marinette groaned, and Adrien gave her one of his best Chat smirks.

“Horrible puns aside, we _do_ need to figure out how we’re going to do that.”

“We could just put the miraculous in her bag, like Master Fu did with ours?”

“No, he was right about telling each other our identities... he’s probably right about telling Alya too,” Marinette spoke, clearly thinking through the plan as she did. “And if we’re going to, we should probably do it before we give her the miraculous. If I know Alya, she’s going to want to transform immediately, before we can explain anything. Can you imagine transforming without your kwami explaining anything first?”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I didn’t listen to anything Plagg said before _I_ transformed the first time.” Marinette rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, he does that a _lot_. Jumping into things without thinking them through, not bringing cheese to school, literally jumping in the way of an akuma’s attack because of his ‘undying love for Ladybug’ and ‘not wanting to see his Lady get hurt’ and all that nonsense.” Marinette and Adrien were suddenly aware of the kwamis, who had been quietly reuniting while they talked. Plagg, evidently, was done being quiet.

“Plagg!” Adrien said, his face turning red.

“What’s this about _undying love_ for Ladybug?” Marinette asked, with a smirk.

“Oh, man, you should see him after battles! He watches every video on the Ladyblog and talks about how beautiful you were during the fight! He has it _bad_.” Adrien’s face turned even redder, and he shoved Plagg into his pocket before he could say anything else. Tikki shook her head, muttering something about how Plagg should just be patient and let them figure things out for themselves, and flew into Marinette’s purse.

Adrien cleared his throat, breaking the rather awkward silence that had developed. “Soooo… uh… should we give it to her tomorrow, at school?”

Marinette thought. “Maybe after school. She’s not going to be able to hold in her excitement if we tell her during school.”

“Are we both going to be there?”

“Oh, absolutely. You’re not getting to put off telling her, chaton, and I’m going to need backup.”

“So, we’d need somewhere we can go after school that’s private? Maybe we should go to one of our houses?”

“Good idea. I’ll invite her to my house, that way she won’t think anything’s unusual. I guess you’ll be there, too?”

The teens, now focused on planning, quickly dissolved the awkwardness between them, if only temporarily. After the plan was set, they transformed, patrolled, then parted ways for the night.

\----------------------

The next day, Marinette had no trouble getting up for school on time. She had hardly slept at all, anyway, with all the butterflies in her stomach. The irony of that idiom was not lost on her.

“Woah, girl, you’re never this early. Is something happening?” Marinette detected undertones of concern in Alya's question.

“Oh, no…. I’m just, uh, waiting for Adrien! I didn’t want to miss him before school today, haha,” Marinette said, looking down the street. She didn’t want to risk making eye contact with Alya.

“You know what I keep saying; you should just tell him already!”

“Alya, you know I-” Marinette was interrupted by the arrival of Adrien’s limo. As he got out, he saw them.

“Marinette!” He said, his eyes lighting up as walked over to them. Before Alya could ask, he hugged Marinette. “It’s so good to see _you_!”

Alya, luckily, didn’t seem to notice the emphasis, though she definitely did notice Marinette’s face turning ladybug red. She waited until Adrien released Marinette and walked over to Nino to speak.

“What was that about, Mari?”

“I- I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Girl, you know you’re a terrible liar.”

“No, r-really! I don’t know why he hugged me!” Marinette protested. That she _wasn’t_ lying about- what was he doing? She hoped he was planning on explaining to Alya why he was suddenly such good friends with Marinette that he’d hug her out of nowhere.

“Even after he said your name, specifically?”

“Yes!”

“Fine, girl, I’ll just have to ask him about it,” Alya said, leaving to join Nino and Adrien.

Marinette sighed as she walked into the school building. This was going to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to TRY to update daily, but I have no idea how long that'll last so bear with me here


	3. Team-Building Lesson Three: Inviting Someone to the Team

“Wait up!” Marinette called, jogging after Alya, who had started to leave school before Marinette invited her over.

Alya stopped, turning around to face Marinette. “Did you need something, girl?”

“I was, uh, wondering if you wanted to come over to my house today! To… uh… study for the test?”

Alya crossed her arms. “That test isn’t for another three weeks.”

“Right, right… I need to talk to you, Alya,” Marinette said. “Nothing serious or bad! Just, I was hoping we could talk back at my house?” she quickly amended.

“Well, okay, if it’s important?” Alya asked, and Marinette nodded. “Okay.”

“Seriously, you’ll probably love it more than I will,” Marinette joked. Alya, sufficiently reassured, smiled.

They kept talking as they walked.

“So, am I permitted to know the topic of this discussion?”

Marinette paused. “... Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Alya stared at her, caught completely off guard. She had been hoping to finally get an explanation for Adrien’s behavior that morning. “What is it that you- wait. You can’t tell me here, and I’m going to love it? Mari, did you figure out their secret identities or something??” Marinette frowned.

“Something like that. Come on, let’s go up to my room.”

Marinette opened the hatch, making eye contact with Chat Noir, who was sitting on her chair. He nodded silently, and Marinette climbed up, followed by Alya.

“So what was it you wanted to-” she stopped as soon as she saw Chat, her eyes lighting up. “Chat Noir is in your room??”

“Okay, Alya, I know this is going to be a _lot_ to take in,” Marinette spoke slowly and carefully, and Alya’s mind raced, trying to think of what could be coming next. “Tikki, transform me!” She froze as Marinette was surrounded by pink light. “I’m…” Marinette faltered for a split second, before speaking more confidently. “I’m Ladybug.”

Marinette didn’t immediately notice, but Chat was _also_ staring at her, in what was clearly some kind of amazement. Hadn’t he just seen this last night?

Alya remained frozen for a moment. Ladybug started to wave a hand in front of her face, but Alya pulled away so she could look her in the eyes. “Girl, are you Ladybug??” 

Ladybug smiled weakly.

“Oh my god, you’re Ladybug!” Alya’s head was reeling. The words started pouring out before she could even try to organize her thoughts: “I can’t believe you’re- but I can believe, it makes so much sense- I’ve been trying to expose _your_ identity for the past- Why didn’t you- well, I can guess why, but…” Alya stopped. “Why are you telling me _now_? Why is Chat Noir here?”

Chat sighed, and Ladybug gave him a reassuring smile. Alya seemed confused when he stood up, but he was pretty sure she realized why as he was surrounded by green light.

Alya’s stomach did a backflip. “Adrien?? _You’re_ Chat Noir??”

“Paws-itively.” he said, with a Chat Noir grin that looked a lot less confident than Alya was used to seeing. She heard Ladybug groan disapprovingly from somewhere next to her.

Alya’s hands went up in the air. “This is- I can’t believe- two of my _best friends_ are the city’s superheroes?? … How did I not notice this sooner??” Alya glanced at the Ladybug and Chat Noir poster on the wall. “...You guys look exactly like your secret identities, really. How hasn’t anyone noticed? How haven’t _I_ put it together already?? What am I, blind?”

Plagg flew up to Alya, who stared at him with wide eyes. “I’m Chat Noir’s kwami, you can call me Plagg.” he said, with an air of indifference. Alya looked as though he was giving away the secrets of the universe. He supposed this was close. “See, my magic makes it so this idiot can keep his identity secret. Nothing and nobody will be able to recognize his face or voice unless they already know or figure it out some other way. Believe me, if it weren’t for that, you would’ve figured it out in the first week.”

Alya decided to take that as a compliment. “So the suits really are magic?” Plagg nodded, glancing around the room.

“Hey, Ladybug, do you have any cheese? I’m starving.”

“Plagg, don’t be rude!”

“I’m over 5000 years old, I can be as rude as I want.”

Marinette- who had apparently detransformed after Plagg showed up- chuckled. “It’s alright, Adrien, I’m sure Tikki’s hungry too. I’ll go downstairs and get some snacks.”

After Marinette left, Adrien spoke. “Plagg didn’t really explain much, sorry. The kwami help us transform into Ladybug and Chat Noir through our miraculouses, and food helps them recharge after we turn back. Mine is my ring-”

Alya grabbed his hand, studying the ring. “That’s right! That’s what Hawkmoth’s always trying to get, right? I never thought I’d get to see it up close! Does it change color when you transform?” she asked, looking up from his hand. He looked at her, then his hand, and Alya gave him a sheepish smile and let go. “Oh, sorry, I just…”

Adrien smiled. “It’s fine. My ring turns black when I turn into Chat. I know Ladybug’s earrings are red with spots on them, but I don’t really know what it looks like when she’s not transformed.”

“So what do kwami eat?”

“I love cheese! It’s the best thing in the world, and I don’t see why Adrien complains about it all the time. He says he smells like cheese all the time as if it were a _bad_ thing!”

A red, spotted kwami flew up to Alya. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced! I’m Tikki, Marinette’s kwami.” She held out a tiny arm for Alya to shake. Alya carefully shook it with her finger and her thumb. “All the kwami eat different things, and I like sweets. Especially cookies.”

As if on cue, Marinette came back with a plate of snacks, including cheese and cookies. Plagg excitedly flew over to her, with Tikki not too far behind.

Alya took a croissant from the plate as Marinette sat down. “So, why are you telling me all this? I know we’re best friends, but you’ve kept the secret- which I totally don’t blame you for doing- for this long already. What changed?”

Marinette set the plate down, took a deep breath, and pulled the fox miraculous out of her pocket. “Master Fu- the man who gave us our miraculouses- thought it was… time to expand the team, and he said you'd be the perfect person for the... fox miraculous.” She handed it to Alya, who took it carefully. It seemed to take her a moment to register what she was holding.

“I get to be a superhero???” She said, her eyes lighting up.

Marinette grinned, looking completely confident for the first time that day. “Welcome the team.”

Alya hurriedly put the necklace on, and all three teens watched as the fox kwami appeared. She glanced at them, clearly surprised to have an audience, but relaxed when she spotted Tikki and Plagg. She turned to face Alya. “My name's Trixx. Are you ready to become the coolest superhero in town?”

Alya nodded enthusiastically. “I'm Alya! It's so cool to meet you!!”

Trixx smiled. “I take it Ladybug and Chat Noir already took care of all the boring explanation for me?” Alya nodded again. “Fantastic. So whaddya say we get to the good part?”

Alya stood up, and had to take a second to contain her excitement long enough to say, “Trixx, transform me!” 

Marinette and Adrien watched as Alya was surrounded by orange light.


End file.
